Jazz Up Math with Music

Experience how music can enliven math in this dynamic workshop presented by Chris Brewer, a music and learning expert and Mark Wahl, a mathematics learning specialist versed in the new math standards. This course gives you valuable tools that can make your math teaching more effective and allow you to reach a wide diversity of students. Specific teaching strategies will be addressed for kindergarten through 8th grade students. No musical knowledge or experience necessary--this course is designed for all classroom teachers!

The new math standards demand increased understanding of concepts, a stronger perception of numerical relationships, enhanced math reasoning, and better ability to communicate results. Graphing, probability, functions and number sense are among many new topics requiring competence. Often teachers feel that meaningfully conveying these concepts to a diverse population of students is a daunting task. Recent research has revealed intriguing connections between music, rhythm, movement and more effective learning. Used strategically, these math and music connections can multiply math mastery while exponentially increasing fun, retention and motivation.

This course provides techniques for using music, musical metaphors, music theory, rhythm, songs/raps and music-assisted movement to teach many common math concepts. You’ll find out how to enhance teaching of skills and knowledge such as

numeration

place-value

math tables

money

time

functions

graphing

story problems

ratios

prime numbers

 

Presentation Lengths:
50-75 minutes (one instructor only), 3 hours, 6-8 hours, 2 day

Grade Levels:
1-3, 4-6

Materials:
Music and Learning Handbook, Soundtracks for Learning: 101 Notable Activities using Sound Learning Techniques, Music for Learning CD catalog and packages, Mathematical Mystery Tour (Mark Wahl), Math for Humans (Mark Wahl)

 

Music is the essence of order and brings us the gift of feeling the rhythms and patterns in life.

Plato